AKB48’s notorious mouth-to-mouth feeding CM campaign has come under fire for everything from promoting the evils of female homosexuality to putting innocent children at risk of infection with horrible diseases.

The BPO, Japan’s main and thankfully toothless TV watchdog, reports receiving a deluge of complaints about the ads, for once even outnumbering complaints about the evils of anime:

“Please stop these undignified ads. Passing food from mouth to mouth like that is most unhygienic, and gross to boot. Maybe this stuff makes their otaku fans happy, but having teenage girls in their underwear cuddle each other and ask ‘do you want to have a baby with me?’ is really unsettling. And you can’t avoid the ads because all the other shows pick them up…”

“Children might well copy this mouth passing! There are all kinds of microbes in your mouth, and it appears to be promoting homosexuality as well. These are ads for sweets, what is the meaning of this! It’s dirty, please stop it!”

“These sweet passing ads are just pointless. TV shows and advertising have a great deal of social influence on both children and society at large, these disgusting ones ought to be stopped!”

“My 2-year-old was watching when these sweet passing ads came on! It was absolutely shocking. My child didn’t know why these girls were kissing, and was quite upset by it, to say nothing of the difficulty I had explaining it. They shouldn’t show this around cartoons for children.”

“When I saw that ad I was really worried young kiddies might emulate it – and not just with sweets, but perhaps with an eraser, and end up swallowing it!”

I bet the kid saw the candies and got hungry, and was quite upset at not being fed. A 2 year old kid would understand two people wanting to eat the candy and sharing it mouth to mouth, more than understanding the act of two people kissing.

Still, I doubt the kid would be upset by it. He probably went "uh-huh" then went back to playing.

I remember as a kid I wondered why adults would get pissed off about their partners being with someone else, couldn't they just share? Kids that young probably don't have any deep understanding about romance and morality, they just know that when they do certain things, mommy gets angry.

While I don't exactly like they way they this ad was presented(I've seen far better lesbian kisses) it nonetheless befuddles me how Japan still lives in the dark ages.

"Children might copy this"? Seriously Japan? Grow up! Your nation has been ruled by neo-conservative, far-right old men for the past 50+ years. Wake the Fu%K up Japan! Your lack of any respect for your foreigners, naturalized citizens, minorities, and gays/lesbians is truly an embarrassment to world.

They object to encouraging babies. They can rip them away from their fantasies (like how they dealt with hikkikomoris oh wait) or they can try and lead them away with other subjects. Although at this current stage the ad would only increase an idol-otaku's infatuation with their idols. I am certain if they put enough brain power behind it they can lead otakus away with ads just like these. (Hikkikomoris again hmmm...)

Naw, lesbians are ok as long as they are the ugly ones. When it's a hot, sexy woman it means one less hot and sexy women for us. Which is a crying shame. But let the ugly woman have the other ugly women. It's a win/win scenario!

“When I saw that ad I was really worried young kiddies might emulate it – and not just with sweets, but perhaps with an eraser, and end up swallowing it!”

Seriously, an eraser? I mean seriously, swallowing an eraser? Seriously again, eraser instead of something edible? Why didn't these soccermoms ever think that having stupid kids like those actually have to do with their suckey parenting? If that's the case, we may as well ban any juice ads on TV, dreading that they may lead us to swallowing a tank of toxic waste.

To be frank the prudes are even more insane than the so-called pervs. The pervs like sex and often think about it. The prudes think about sex all the time and turn everything into a messed-up perverse sexual metaphor.

Not everyone who objects to something is a prude and not everyone who defends porno is a perv. That's presenting a false dichotomy. It's a logical fallacy. You can be normal, as most people are and not want stupid pseudo-porn next to childrens' TV shows. You can even be a perv and want that. Most people actually have this view.

While it's true that no one's forcing them to watch, imagine you being a homophobic, watching T.V. and suddenly these kinds of ads come on. You're a good person, so you won't complain. You then switch the channel for a short while, wondering "Is it over yet?" countless of times.

...And when you switch the channel back, turns out you missed several seconds of the show you're watching. Iunno for you, but I'd be pissed.

"Children might well copy this mouth passing! There are all kinds of microbes in your mouth..."
uh... something that can't kill you in your mouth can kill me in my mouth? So kissing is deadly now? Also... "teenage girls in their underwear cuddle each other and ask ‘do you want to have a baby with me?’" ←WANT

Bites maybe, but to get ill from swapping spit, you would have to have an open wound in your mouth. And never brush your teeth. And take antibiotics to get rid of the good microbs in your mouth that are there to get rid of bad microbs.